Miss Angola Leila Lopes was crowned Miss Universe 2011 in a star-studded ceremony in Brazil’s Sao Paolo.
Lopes was a strong contender and raised hopes for her country after making it to the final five contestants. She beat 88 other competitors at the Sao Paulo pageant.
“Thank God I’m very satisfied with the way God created me and I wouldn’t change a thing,” Lopes said when asked her interview question. “I consider myself a woman endowed with inner beauty. I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family and I intend to follow these for the rest of my life.”
China’s Luo Zilin came in fourth, Philippines’ Shamcey Supsup was third, Brazil’s Priscila Machado second and Ukraine’s Olesia Stefanko was picked first runners up.
In the top 10 were Australia, Costa Rica, France, Ukraine, Portugal, Panama, Philippines, Angola, China and Brazil.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the pageant that has always picked out the most beautiful of women, matching brains with poise and grace.
This year, the event was held at the Credicard Hall, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Miss Universe 2010 – Ximena Navarrete of Mexico will be passing her crown on to the next beauty.
The event witnessed the participation of contestants from 89 countries surpassing the previous record of 86 participants – as witnessed in 2006.
More about Miss Universe:
Leila is 25 years old and was born in Benguela, Angola.
After graduating high school, Leila pursued studies in business manages in the United Kingdom. While living there, she entered the Miss Angola UK pageant, aimed at Angolan citizens living in the UK, or women with Angolan heritage.
Leila won the contest, enabling her to participate in the Miss Angola 2010 pageant. During the national finals, she won the Miss Angola and Miss Photogenic titles. Leila has also worked as a professional model, and traveled to Brazil to prepare for the 2011 Miss Universe pageant.
Bonus pics:
blackwomenlivingwell.wordpress.com 
She’s gorgeous!. I’m also digging Miss Bahamas and Miss Aruba.
Miss Nigeria has a slight paunch, no?.
Am bored, so I youtubed it and some of those girls,(Miss Phillipines and Miss Thai), look a bit tranny-ish.
I think though, it’s the too much make-up syndrome. Makes anyone look like a clown……
I did notice some of the contestants may have gone a bit overboard with the tanner/weave/makeup. Overall, I thought it was nice to watch. My mom loves watching these things because you get to see beautiful images of African women. Most of the time we see African women looking sadly into the camera with flies all over them, looking hungry, with a man’s voice telling us a dime a day will save their life.
You should see the shock on some people’s faces when they actually step foot on the continent and see there are plenty of Miss Angola/Miss South Africa’s walking around going about their business. Priceless.
I saw a little of the intros to Miss Universe last night… I had to switch the channel though. Until they start doing Mr. Universe, I’m so over these “let’s objectify women” pageants.
I gave the side-eye to Miss Ghana. Since when did Ghana become a white/mixed country? The (other) problem I have with these pageants is that they always choose the women that are the least representative of their countries when it comes to black countries. Even this Miss Angola — should be Ms. Cape Verde.
On another note, I like Ms. South Africa, Nigeria, and Bahamas.
That’s interesting you say she doesn’t look like a representation of her country, because I looked briefly at images of the Miss Angola pageant a lot of the girls look like her.
I think we should be careful w/ comments about someone not looking like she’s from so and so country. I made the same remark about Miss Nigeria and my mom wasn’t too pleased. My mom is a very light-skinned Nigerian woman and the rest of her siblings are much darker. Someone could easily say she doesn’t “look African” even though she is straight from the mother land.
When I mention what Miss Nigeria looked like, she and my dad said they have seen plenty of girls who look like her. It’s a very diverse country with lots of ethnic groups as well as the continent as well 🙂
I also loved Miss South Africa and a lot of the Island contestants. It was lovely to hear about all of their successful careers and degrees they either have or are pursuing.
No, Miss Nigeria looks Nigerian; she looks Igbo. She doesn’t stick out when I think of Nigerians.
I’m very informed as far as African phenotypes go; I’m not the type that says someone doesn’t look African because they have light skin. I’m of 100 African descent and I’m lighter than Miss Angola.
But Miss Angola doesn’t look representative of her country, sorry she doesn’t. Here are the finalists for Miss Angola 2010… they don’t like her. In any case, she is Cape Verdean, so it makes sense that she doesn’t look Angolan.
She was born in Angola to Cape Verdian parents. Wouldn’t that be like someone in my case who was born in America to Nigerian parents? I would still be an American. She’s still Angolan.
Like I said there is a lot of diversity and a lot of migration to different countries so situations like hers are bound to happen 🙂
I never said she isn’t Angolan in nationality. That’s not the point.
But I find it just a bit suspicious that whenever beauty contests roll around the winners for the black countries are usually the ones who look the least like the average woman there. Jamaica only recently started having more representative contestants.
Again, skin color is not the point; her entire appearance is. I wouldn’t even describe Miss Angola as light-skinned.
“I can also argue this for black America when it comes to calling President Obama black or Halle Berry. They’re both NOT representative of what black America look like.”
Actually, they are. They would not stick out in black America, especially in certain parts.
It’s all about catering to a more Euro/less black sense of beauty. But if you all want to pretend like you don’t see this, okay. I’m not interested in arguing because what is, is, no matter how much you try to deny it.
No one truly represents their race/country. I can also argue this for black America when it comes to calling President Obama black or Halle Berry. They’re both NOT representative of what black America look like. So honestly, semantics!.
The Asians didn’t look like the typical Asians Eeither. The South Americans did though, although many of them, like the Asians, straightened their hair.
I worked with a Nigerian lady who was just as fair skinned as the Miss Nigeria in this post. I’ve heard that there are dark skinned Kenyas with blonde kinky hair (NOT mixed raced apparently).
very true!
“It’s all about catering to a more Euro/less black sense of beauty. But if you all want to pretend like you don’t see this, okay. I’m not interested in arguing because what is, is, no matter how much you try to deny it.”
And we’ll have to disagree on Halle and Obama being representative of black America because, in my opinion, looks wise, they do not look like the majority of black Americans I have come across (which would make sense since they are both have one black parent).
I don’t think anyone is arguing, just sharing opinions 🙂 As for looking more Euro, there are many African girls who look like that whether it be a lighter skin tone or facial features (narrower nose, etc). Whether or not people think she “looks African” is of no concern to me, since I know African women and in this case Angolan women come in all different packages. Bottom line is her beautiful appearance and intelligence (evident during interviews and her passion about her education) are the reasons why she was featured on my site 🙂
I cried when she won, for some reason, while I was watching the pageant I hard a weird feeling that she was going to win and I was so right!
Hey! I know this is kind of off-topic however I needed to ask.
Does running a well-established blog such as yours take a large amount of work?
I’m completely new to writing a blog however I do write in my journal everyday. I’d like to
start a blog so I will be able to share my personal experience and views
online. Please let me know if you have any kind of ideas or tips for new
aspiring blog owners. Appreciate it!